Play Digital Signage alternative. $6 a screen.
Play lists Essential at $8, Pro at $12 and Ultimate at $16 per screen per month, with 10% off for annual billing. Power BI, the API, touch, alerts, screen tagging and emergency CAP sit on Pro or higher. Brix is one plan at $6/screen/month billed annually ($8 month to month).
7-day free trial. No credit card.
Play has three tiers. We have one.
$6 vs $12 — every feature on the base plan
Play Pro at $12 per screen is where Power BI, the API, touch, slide conditions, alerts, screen tagging, CAP emergency and screen capture appear. Brix includes that feature set on the $6 base plan.
Three tiers, three price points
Play Essential starts at $8. Proof-of-play, audit logs and AudienceAware analytics sit on Ultimate at $16. Brix has one plan with every feature from the first day.
US support and free custom apps
Play is run from Denmark — capable, but you're emailing across timezones when something breaks at the dinner rush. Brix support is US-based.
Play Digital Signage pricing, tier by tier.
Play Digital Signage tier ladder
- Play Digital Signage Essential $7.20 ($8 monthly)
- Play Digital Signage Pro — most popular $10.80 ($12 monthly)
- Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 ($16 monthly)
- 10 screens / 1 yearSave $576
- 10 screens / 3 yearsSave $1,728
- vs Play Digital Signage Pro44% cheaper
Brix vs Play Digital Signage, feature by feature.
68 features. A badge shows the Play Digital Signage plan that a feature needs.
| Feature | Brix · $6 billed annually | Play Digital Signage Essential $7.20 | Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content & media | ||||
| Image upload & playback | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video upload & playback | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document upload & display (PDF, Word, PowerPoint) Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | PDF + PowerPoint (no Word) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web pages / HTML / web URL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| YouTube / live streaming | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Authenticated / secured web pages Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | Public + basic auth | — | HTML/script | HTML/script |
| Layout & design | ||||
| Multi-zone / split-screen layouts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drag-and-drop layout editor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre-built templates (count) | Curated set | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto-size text / responsive templates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lockable layouts Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ticker / scrolling text overlay | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduling & playlists | ||||
| Build playlists | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Day-parting / time-of-day scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced media scheduling rules Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ Slide Conditions | ✓ Slide Conditions |
| Multi-display in-sync playback / video wall sync Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Campaign play (rotate brand assets) Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 | ✓ | — | — | ✓ Ad Cycle |
| Emergency alerts (CAP protocol) Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | US NWS alerts + manual takeover (no custom CAP) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apps & integrations | ||||
| Custom-built apps on request | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Microsoft Teams / Viva integration | Teams alerts; Viva Engage feed (beta) | — | — | — |
| Slack integration | Generic webhooks | — | — | — |
| Power BI dashboards Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | Public embed links | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| POS / e-commerce integrations (Square, Toast, Clover, Shopify) | Toast, Square, Clover: set up by our team | — | — | — |
| Open API Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Interactive & kiosk | ||||
| Interactive kiosk app Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | Touch on Windows/Android TV | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Storage & limits | ||||
| Cloud storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Screen count limit | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Per-file upload size limit | 2 GB video / 250 MB image / 100 MB document | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vendor logo on screen (free of) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users, roles & workflow | ||||
| Multi-user accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team workspaces / channels | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Role-based access control | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Approval workflow / collaboration | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Folders for presentations / schedules / displays | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-language UI | Screen content in any language; console in English | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Analytics & reporting | ||||
| Proof-of-play / impression reporting Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 | ✓ | — | — | ✓ |
| Time-segment / date-range reports Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 | ✓ | — | — | ✓ |
| Email notifications on display online/offline Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ Alerts | ✓ Alerts |
| Live snapshot / channel preview Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ Screen Capture | ✓ Screen Capture |
| Remote management (RDM) | ||||
| Power schedule (auto on/off) Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Remote troubleshooting / diagnostics Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zero-touch player provisioning | Code-free pairing on the same network | — | — | — |
| Bulk content push Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ Multi-Create | ✓ Multi-Create |
| Bulk display management (multi-screen actions) Play Digital Signage Pro $10.80 | ✓ | — | ✓ Tags | ✓ Tags |
| Volume control | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Security & compliance | ||||
| Single sign-on (SAML / OIDC) | OIDC + SCIM (no SAML) | ✓ Okta + Azure | ✓ Okta + Azure | ✓ Okta + Azure |
| Multi-factor authentication (MFA / passkeys) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit logs Play Digital Signage Ultimate $14.40 | ✓ | — | — | ✓ |
| Custom data residency | US, EU, Australia, Asia-Pacific | — | — | — |
| Penetration testing (annual) | Monthly external vulnerability scan | — | — | — |
| HECVAT / CAIQ / SIG (vendor risk forms) | On request | — | — | — |
| Hardware compatibility | ||||
| Amazon Signage Stick (Fire OS) | Default device | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android TV / Google TV | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows PC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apple TV / iPad | iPad via browser; no Apple TV | Mac only | Mac only | Mac only |
| Raspberry Pi | Browser player (unmanaged) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open hardware (no vendor lock-in) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support | ||||
| Phone support | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Video / scheduled remote support | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Same-business-hour SLA | Sev2 within 4 business hours | — | — | — |
| US-based support team | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Dedicated CSM / account manager | High-touch standard | — | — | — |
| Free migration assistance | ✓ | — | — | — |
| Deployment options | ||||
| Cloud / SaaS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| On-premise install | On-prem render agent only | — | — | — |
| Billing | ||||
| Free trial duration | 7 days | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Month-to-month billing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Minimum screen count | None | ✓ None | ✓ None | ✓ None |
Moving from Play Digital Signage to Brix.
Pull your media library and screen list from your Play Digital Signage dashboard. Their UI lets you bulk-download assets; we'll rebuild your playlists, schedules, and zones for free.
We move your content for free. Your screens pair with a code on the hardware you already have.
Talk to us about your moveWhat Play Digital Signage gets right. And where the math breaks.
What Play Digital Signage gets right
Play Digital Signage is a genuinely good product — clean UI, hardware-agnostic playback, refreshingly honest free tier (1 screen forever in exchange for a public review). The cloud-based editor is polished, the platform support is genuinely broad (Apple/Mac uniquely, plus all the usual suspects), and the AudienceAware analytics on Ultimate is a thoughtful feature set.
For a one-screen operator who genuinely just needs playback and is happy to leave a public review, Play's Free tier is hard to beat. For three-tier shoppers who already know they need Power BI, touch, and proof-of-play, Play has built a sensible platform around those needs.
Where the pricing math breaks
Play publishes three paid tiers: Essential at $8, Pro at $12 and Ultimate at $16 per screen per month, and takes 10% off for annual billing. There is also a free tier for 1 screen, in exchange for a public review.
The gap sits at the tier boundaries. Essential does not include Power BI, touch, the API, alerts, tags, sync, screen power scheduling, slide conditions or CAP emergency support. Pro covers most of those, but not proof-of-play, the dashboard, audit logs or AudienceAware. Ultimate has everything, at more than twice the Brix rate.
On 10 screens with annual billing on both sides, Play Pro costs $1,296 a year and Brix costs $720: a gap of $576 a year. Ultimate makes the gap $1,008 a year. Over 3 years on Pro, the difference is $1,728.
On Essential, 10 screens cost $864 a year against $720 for Brix, and Essential does not include most of the features above.
When Play Digital Signage is the right choice
Play Digital Signage is the right call for a one-screen operator who can leave a public review and genuinely doesn't need any of the Pro/Ultimate features. The hardware-agnostic playback (especially the Mac OS support, which is rare in this category) is a real differentiator for buyers who already have idle Mac Minis or iPads.
For multi-screen deployments, anyone who needs Power BI / touch / API / proof-of-play, or anyone wanting US-based phone support — Brix is the better fit at half the per-screen price with everything bundled.
Questions about Play Digital Signage.
Play Essential is $8 and Brix is $6 — is the gap meaningful?
Yes, once you need more than the basics: on 10 screens with annual billing, Essential costs $864 a year and Brix costs $720. Power BI, touch, the API and screen tagging need Play Pro at $12, which makes the gap $576 a year on 10 screens. Brix includes those features on the $6 plan.
Can I keep my hardware?
Mostly, yes. Brix runs on the Amazon Signage Stick, Android TV, Windows and ChromeOS, and on a Raspberry Pi as a browser player. It has no BrightSign player. Brix does not run on Samsung Tizen or LG webOS, and Play does. Play also has stronger Mac OS support: Brix does not run there natively today (a web URL workaround exists).
Does Brix have the AudienceAware analytics on Play Ultimate?
Not yet, no — that's a real Play Ultimate feature. If face-detection demographics are core to your use case, Play Ultimate genuinely earns the price there. For most operators that feature is over-spec for the actual need.
What about Mac OS / iPad / Apple TV support?
Play has stronger Apple support than Brix. Brix has no Apple TV or Mac player; a Mac or iPad can run the browser player. If you have an existing Mac Mini fleet, Play has the edge on hardware compatibility there.
Free migration?
Yes — send us your Play export, we rebuild your screens, playlists, schedules, and zones for free. Most migrations live the same day, regardless of which Play tier you're on.
Will Brix support every Play tier feature?
Most of them, on the base plan. The exceptions: AudienceAware (face-detection demographics), Mac OS native, BETA Updates channel. Brix has Power BI (public embed links), touch, the API, alerts, screen tagging, US NWS emergency alerts, audit logs and proof-of-play (switch on in Settings → Organization → Feature defaults) on its one plan. It does not read custom CAP feeds.
Try Brix before you renew Play Digital Signage.
7-day free trial, no credit card. We move your Play Digital Signage content for free.